Catheterization may be required when a patient undergoes hemodialysis. A typical example of a hemodialysis catheter was a dual lumen catheter assembly in which one lumen introduced the blood and other lumen removed the blood.
Catheter performance during dialysis is a challenge, as use of catheters with higher recirculation, and/or suction, and/or occlusion issues results in adequate dialysis sessions. Adequate dialysis has been shown to be an independent predicator of increase hospitalization.
To specifically address the above issues, straight split-tip and curved split-tip catheters were designed to utilize independent “free floating” distal tip segments that separate at a distal end of the catheter to theoretically reduce likelihood of potential occlusion and sucking during dialysis treatment.
For recirculation issues, the prior art devices may have more than 20% of recirculation in a reverse blood lines configuration. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a split-tip catheter that may minimize blood recirculation during dialysis in forward and reverse blood lines configurations.